Letter to the Editor/Correspondance

摘要

I have 35 years experience in many venues of nursing, have worked in five provinces of Canada, and have followed the logical sequence from Marc Lalonde's A New Perspective on the Health of Canadians,1 to Evans, Barer, & Marmor synthesizing epidemiological evidence to determine the etiology of health and disease - from which emerged 'determinants of health, as a vital concept. Currently teaching community health nursing from a population-focused perspective in an undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program, I think of myself as a committed public health nurse, an educator who is fairly aware of the 'big picture', who relearns and applies concepts and perspectives each semester with my students. Determinants of health are fundamental to understanding the range of factors, conditions, and interactions shown to influence health over the life course. But it was a woman from Africa, Wangari Maathai, who made me understand the existence of an 'un-named' determinant of health -government! Infusing alldeterminants, government threads 'un-named' through the existing literature and research. Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, outlines seven areas of concern she learned from her work to reforest her native Kenya - environment, empowerment, education, good government, sustainable development, employment, and the future.4 Maathai clearly recognizes the positive effect of good government on die healtJi of humans, stating that good government protects the environment, in effect showing respect for human rights. Maathai's